This ground-breaking volume fills a major historiographical gap by providing the first
detailed book-length study of the period of the Protectorate Parliaments from
September 1654 to April 1659. The study is very broad in its scope, covering topics
as diverse as the British and Irish dimensions of the Protectorate Parliaments, the
political and social nature of factions, problems of management, the legal and judicial
aspects of Parliament’s functions, foreign policy, and the nature of the parliamentary
franchise and elections in this period. In its wide-ranging analysis of Parliaments and
politics throughout the Protectorate, the book also examines both Lord Protectors, all
three Protectorate Parliaments, and the reasons why Oliver and Richard Cromwell
were never able to achieve a stable working relationship with any Parliament. Its
chronological coverage extends to the demise of the Third Protectorate Parliament in
April 1659. This comprehensive account will appeal to historians of early modern
British political history